Student Social Entrepreneurs Support Project in Nigeria

Students in NSU’s Huizenga Business Innovation Academy in the H. Wayne Huizenga College of Business and Entrepreneurship set out a couple of years ago on a mission dedicated to helping underserved people. They wanted to develop a product or service that could generate revenue they would then donate to a struggling community.

The students connected with South Florida resident Don Campion, owner of Banyan Air Service, an airline that flies to the Bahamas, the Caribbean and South America. Campion and his wife, Sueanne, are revitalizing a 100-bed hospital and a 300-student college of nursing in the rural town of Egbe, Nigeria, in southwest Africa. Campion was also inducted into the College of Business and Entrepreneurship’s Entrepreneur and Business Hall of Fame in 2021.

In collaboration with the Campions, the students created a peanut-based snack they could sell first on NSU’s campus, then market off-campus. After the students established their product’s manufacturing and packaging, Mission Munchies was born in September 2023.

The venture is committed to supporting the hospital revitalization project and economic growth in Egbe by donating 100 percent of its profits from its Nigerian-inspired product sales. Their efforts resulted in a $3,000 donation to the Egbe cause last December.

Heading up the project are:

• CEO Maria Asimopoulou, an entrepreneurship major from Thessaloniki, Greece
• Rohalio Krigger, an entrepreneurship major from Lauderhill, Fla.
• Marlyn Santana Rosa, a finance major from the Dominican Republic
• Alma Rivera-Brizo, a finance major from Miami, Fla.
• Amanda Levy, a business management major from New York
• Simbarashe Mtasa, a business management major from Harare, Zimbabwe

“Just think, as the Mission Munchies snack grows and as students continue to innovate with other products the impact their class can make a world away,” Campion said. “As this product grows, students will be researching what product or service could be mentored at Egbe to employ villagers and bring a level of commerce to the town.”

Mission Munchies is a trail mix made of peanuts, raisins, banana chips, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, chocolate and Kuli Kuli, a West African snack. The students buy their products from a trusted wholesaler and mix them altogether. They make their Kuli Kuli from scratch using peanuts, ginger, cinnamon, sugar and salt.

The project has had its ups and downs, Asimopoulou said.

“Some of the successes are seeing our donations making an impact on people’s lives,” she said. “Some of the challenges are manufacturing in high demand and bringing customers to the company.”

With the support of Jose Brache, assistant professor and academic director of the Huizenga Business Innovation Academy, College of Business and Entrepreneurship, Dean Andrew Rosman and Campion, the students say they’ve learned the importance of shared goals and objectives as well as the power of collaboration.

Social entrepreneurship endeavors such as Mission Munchies address social and environmental challenges through innovative and sustainable business models, Brache said. They’re increasingly relevant in our economy because they combine the efficiency of free markets with a social purpose that is “Best for Our World,” consistent with the mantra of NSU’s business college.

“In going through the experience of running a business that has a social purpose, our students develop their business vision, leadership, creativity and capacity to take initiative in the contexts of high uncertainty,” he said. “And while they further polish these significant entrepreneurial competencies, they develop an awareness on their own with the potential to make a contribution to humanity.”

Posted 02/20/24